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The Numbers: A Summary of Month 1

Big picture stuff 🙂 I have kept a lot of detail though because we are so new at this Brat Experiment and I think that the detail gives us a better idea of where we are spending money and where we can reduce (and maybe fellow Korean dwellers will find it useful too). I am hoping that I can drop all the detail once we have a better idea of our spending/saving culture.

Day to day lives:

Groceries

34%

515 710 won

7700 won

Groceries

19 680 won

Groceries

13 000 won

Coffee out (thanks for lift)

8850 won

Groceries

9890 won

Groceries

8400 won

Groceries

4000 won

Coffee with school

2650 won

Milk

4000 won

Medication

18 000 won

Medication

48 590 won

Groceries

4500 won

Groceries

2600 won

Milk

4300 won

Milk and beer

10800 won

School juices

48 450 won

May school lunches

75 400 won

School lunches

4000 won

Korean side dishes

165 170 won

Groceries

7770 won

Groceries

11 720 won

Groceries

3 500 won

School lunch

32 740 won

Groceries

Eat out

8%

117 000 won

23000 won

Restaurant dinner

6750 won

Beer and ice cream

9500 won

Order-in dinner

25 000 won

Dinner out (dakgalbi)

13 000 won

Order-in

9950 won

Pudding

17 000 won

Dinner out

1200 won

Ice Cream

1200 won

Chocolate milk

4500 won

Coffee

850 won

Water

5 050 won

Milk and picnic snacks

Clothes

11%

160 180 won

27780 won

Running shorts

27 800 won

My clothes

14 900 won

My clothes

79 800 won

Shoes

9900 won

Clothes

Alcohol

2%

32 650 won

5750 won

Beer

18 000 won

Beer in a pub

5200 won

Beach beer

3 700 won

Beer

Once-off

13%

189 000 won

50 000 won

Wedding present

130 000 won

Back pack

9 000 won

Kokis

Bills

24%

358 720 won

440 won

Bank fee

102 300 won

Building management fee

39 710 won

My phone bill

140 270 won

Gas bill

36 000 won

Husband’s phone

40 000 won

Internet

Transport

2%

26 900 won

3500 won

Taxi to yoga

3 400 won

Taxi

10 000 won

Bus/subway card recharge

10 000 won

Bus/subway card recharge

Gifts

6%

96 500 won

15 500 won

Gifts

36 100 won

Gifts

44 900 won

Gifts

Week 1 grand total: 202 900 won

Necessary: 145 300 won (72%)

Indulgent: 57 600 won (28%)

Week 2 grand total: 89 110 won

Necessary: 67 960 won (76%)

Avoidable: 21 150 won (24%)

Week 3 grand total: 134 130 won

Necessary: 107 180 won (80%)

Indulgence: 26 950 won (20%)

Week 4 grand total: 636 190 won

Necessary: 538 130 won (85%)

Indulgence: 98 060 won (15%)

Monday 23rd & Tuesday 24th: 443 580 won

Necessary: 433 680 won (98%)

Indulgent: 9 900 won (2%)

TOTAL: 1 505 910 won (over budget by 505 910 won)

Total necessary: 1 292 250 won (86%)

Total indulgent: 213 660 won (14%)

At first glance: not great. We were hoping to spend only 1 million won and instead spent just over 1.5 million won. However, we did reduce our eating out really drastically so that’s great. Also, we realized this hasn’t been a typical month. We’re hoping the clothes shopping will be a once-off (we’ve just moved to Korea and it’s just not possible to bring everything you need for a year in one bag – especially when you arrive in the frigid temperatures of winter) and that the once-off section won’t find other once offs 🙂 Also our bills should reduce by about 100 000 won because our gas bill and Husband’s school lunch was actually for two months. Taken all together that’s 449 190 won we’re hoping we won’t have to pay in Month 2 – and suddenly we’re only 50 000 won over budget 🙂

However, the most significant thing for me is that with each passing week our ratio of necessary vs indulgent improves. This is truly cartwheel-fantastic because it means that we’re learning and improving our spending/saving culture weekly i.e. we’re on the right path and heading in the right direction – whohoooooo! 🙂

Travel:

Now this gets a bit complicated. Long before we started the Brat Experiment we had decided that with our April salaries one of us would buy tickets to Malaysia for our August holiday – which we did. This technically counts as travel. BUT if we hadn’t bought those tickets that money would have gone straight to savings. So in our heads we’re not counting those flights as coming out of our travel budget – instead they are from LBTBE (Life Before The Brat Experiment).

Transportation

28%

223 400 won

(without the flights)

4 300 won

Taxi

29 200 won

Bus to Seoul

8 700 won

Taxi

21 800 won

Bus to Boryeong

4 400 won

Taxi

19 800 won

Train to Seoul

4 400 won

Taxi

43 000 won

Bus home

4 300 won

Taxi

3400 won

Taxi to bus terminal

4500 won

Taxi to bus terminal

23 400 won

Bus to Chuncheon

3200 won

Taxi to dinner

5800 won

Bus to Gapyeong

5200 won

Taxi to accommodation

3000 won

Taxi to town

3000 won

Taxi to town

5800 won

Bus to Chuncheon

23 400 won

Bus to Gangneung

2800 won

Taxi home

1 300 000 won

Flights to Malaysia

Accommodation

32%

260 000 won

70 000 won

Motel

80 000 won

Motel (two nights)

50 000 won

Love Motel

60 000 won

Pension

Food

27%

223 300 won

9 800 won

Dinner out

7 500 won

Dinner out

22 000 won

Lunch out

8 000 won

Breakfast gimbap

6 000 won

Coffee out

18 100 won

Coffee out

23 000 won

Dinner & Beer

24 000 won

Breakfast out

6 000 won

Dinner (from shop)

28 000 won

Dakgalbi (dinner)

2000 won

Pudding after dinner

9000 won

Breakfast out

45 000 won

Food at Beer Fest

6000 won

Breakfast smoothie

5900 won

Burger lunch

3000 won

Bus snacks

Alcohol

9%

76 600 won

47 000 won

Drinks

9 600 won

Beer

20 000 won

Alcohol

Shopping

4%

32 000 won

5 000 won

Strawberries (present)

27 000 won

Presents

Boryeong Travel Total: 522 900 won

Necessary: 299 400 won (57%)

Avoidable: 223 500 won (43%)

Beer Festival Travel Total: 292 400 won

Necessary: 226 500 won (77%)

Indulgence: 65 900 won (23%)

Malaysia International Flights: 1 300 000 won

Travelling TOTAL: 815 300 won (without flights) – under budget 🙂

2 115 300 won (with flights)

I’m thrilled because we came in under our travel budget. But I must admit travelling just around Korea costs a lot more than I thought it would… However, again there was an improvement in our necessary vs indulgent ratio and so I have faith that our spending while travelling within Korea with reduce with time 🙂

MONTH 1 TOTAL (day to day & travel): 2 318 210 won (318 210 won over budget)

3 621 210 won (with flights)

The moral of the story? Some highs. Some definite lows. But all evidence suggesting that we are learning and improving. So all in all, not a bad first month J What do you think, dear Reader?

3 thoughts on “The Numbers: A Summary of Month 1”

Ok, so we have come across a problem: our money tracking app, for some strange reason, hadn’t synced two of Husband’s entries with my phone. So when I did the weekly (and monthly!) summaries of our spending they weren’t included 😦 These items were:

Postage (presents and cards sent to South Africa): 46 630 won (necessary? indulgent??)
Beer brewing kit: 136 700 won (Necessary. Husband loves it and it ultimately works out cheaper per beer)

What this means is that out total spend was actually 2 501 540 won for Month 1. Sigh.